Ireland is being used as a gateway for drug smuggling into Europe, a senior customs official said last night, following yesterday's cocaine seizure off west Cork.
Speaking at a press conference in Bantry last night, Patrick O'Sullivan, customs enforcement officer in the southwest, said Ireland was widely perceived as a "soft touch" for individuals involved in the drugs trade.
"Ireland is on the southern approaches of Europe and it is the gateway, and they [ the smugglers] decided it was a soft touch.
"It [ the latest seizure] was exceptionally substantial in Irish terms.
"This is a stroke of luck for the enforcement agencies and bad luck for cocaine smugglers."
Late last night Garda sources said around 60 bales of cocaine - or 1,500kg - had been found. Official Garda figures value the drug at €70,000 per kilo, and the haul at €105 million. However, when bulked with glucose, the haul could have a street value of up to three times that figure.
Meanwhile, west Cork-based Insp Ger Lacey said last night gardaí had called off the search for a third so-called missing person in the water after it was decided he did not exist.
Gardaí instead were searching for two men who were spotted by locals running away from the area where the boat capsized.
Insp Lacey said the whole headland of Durrus Dunlough had been sealed off and the search would continue for the men along the extensive coastline.
Gardaí are to co-operate with British police and Interpol to determine the identity and possible criminal record of the man arrested in connection with the haul. A second man remains at Bantry General Hospital where he is being treated for hypothermia. Insp Lacey said the two men were fortunate to escape with their lives. He described the sea from where they were rescued as particularly treacherous. Meanwhile, locals in the Goleen-Dunlough Bay area were said to be shocked at the quantity of drugs recovered. The area is a remote spot where road signs are a rarity and mobile phone coverage is practically non-existent.
However, members of the tight-knit community rallied around yesterday morning when they were informed a man was lost at sea and participated in the search alongside Valentia Coastguard, Castletownbere Lifeboat, the Shannon-based helicopter and Goleen Coastguard Unit.
Gardaí said local farmers and other locals had played a vital role in the land-based search.